The alleyway was as old as the bustling big city. Only it didn’t bustle so much right now. The never-ending string of tall infantile buildings have completely detached every last bit of the old alleyway from the new life of the city. No one comes that way now. No one even knows of the alleyway anymore. In the dark, in solitude stands the narrow old lane bearing nothingness all over it. There used to be a band of stray dogs who used to come and go. But now, even they seemed to have found a better place. The city seems to have completely forgotten what once used to be its heart. Inanimate it remained in the midst of all these insults.

And one day someone finally found out the secret. On a rain drenched night two dead bodies turned up in the darkness of the alley.

It will take a week or two before the rank smell of dead meat could fight its way through the plush odours of the city. But once it does, more bustle would follow. For once the narrow old alley felt happiness.

Do you believe in luck? I do. More than ever, now! The significance of luck in the existence of every human being is appreciably larger than what most of us would like to agree. People would always love to believe in themselves and their abilities. And that’s not a bad thing, not until you overestimate your own control on things. A comprehension of what is beyond your own capabilities is always good. And apparently what is in your control may become microscopic when you compare it with what is beyond you. Luck is essentially everything that is out of our control and that what controls us. Everything that directly or indirectly shapes up the evolution of our civilizations. Our co-existence with an elaborate social structure is heavily influenced by our chances.

Our present can be seen as an outcome to an array of both controllable and uncontrollable events of past. We generally feel blind about what is out of our power and consequently comes to think that all what is happening is a net resultant of all what we are doing. It’s basically a delusion. We generally care only about that microscopic part of our life of which we are in control. And perhaps for ensuring some sort of a progression in our existence such a delusion is very important. If we stop caring about what we should be cared about, it’s failure again. So consider Mr. A, who is presently doing engineering, and if A works hard, in future he would become a successful engineer. ‘If he works hard’ is the microscopic controllable fraction and all what we are concerned about. There is an indomitable past, present and future to it. ‘A’ was born in a family, a place, a country where he could afford to go learn engineering. Mr. A possibly couldn’t have had any say on such things. Then there is an equally uncertain future. What if Mr. A get’s into an accident or what if America decides to attack Mr. A’s country? A becomes not what he chooses to be, but what a set of random interrelated incidents around him leads him to be. Chaos.

Then there are two other concepts of fate and destiny, which I think is absurd. In fate your luck is predetermined. It was already determined that Mr. A should be born in that particular place, family, country and should go to engineering and no matter how hard he tries he wouldn’t become a successful engineer if the fate has it that way. Now that’s perennial hopelessness. But in many ways luck is not. Your luck is not predetermined. But you couldn’t do anything about either. You are not in control. Nobody is!

So who decides what luck should come to you? GOD, maybe? No I don’t think so. Because if he was in control why would GOD give Mr. A all the luck in the world to become an engineer while Mr. B born in a poor family in Afghanistan, who happens to be a little more intelligent and talented , get’s neglected ? Why would you get the providence today to enjoy that late night party with your friends, when in some other parts of the world men are mourning the deaths of their own sons and daughters? Why them and not you? Is god biased that way? May be, the intervention of the divine power in our lives is a far more complicated and unsettled subject.

So, it’s just a thought on how random and uncertain our life is. It’s not about the good luck or the bad luck but about how out of control everything is. Most people would tell you that you can make your own luck. I believe they are lying. Lying, probably only to help you out. Only to sustain a harmless fallacy that would lead to an overall happiness. I believe in luck for all the livid perplexity it offers. Like Woody Allen I believe in the man who said ‘I would rather be lucky than be good’.

P.S: Sorry for that shameless lame example of Mr. A and engineering. Just too sorry about that!

Oscar 09 is not so much of an interesting subject, I know. But last time I wrote a similar post on the Oscars and ended up getting some major traffic on the blog. So that’s not a bad thing and here we go again.

It’s a mess when you think of this year’s Oscar nominations. Forming an opinion is too confusing. But predictions would be easier, I suppose. The suspense of the academy awards have become so much of a cliché that I think they must start doing something just to break this predictability. They must give the awards randomly to completely unexpected contestants. Of course there would be a lot of uproars and criticisms but they will be there anyway and will only do good to the business. Okay, I was kidding and the academy shouldn’t really get confused over that. Let’s go deep into the matter!

Now, I can bet my very own ass over the ‘Slumdog millionaire’ this time. Slumdog is on this dream run which is totally getting on my nerves now and which would most probably continue at the Oscars too. Wait, let me explain. I did like the slumdog first time I saw it, for the sheer quality of film making drawn in and didn’t care to think further into the subject as it appeared nothing more than a complete entertainer to me. Don’t you all remember that dance number at the end of the movie? And I thought all such stuffs are included in movies as a signal for the award guys to stay away. I was apparently wrong and I don’t like it that way. I mean you knew they were never going to consider the Dark Knight for the awards and why couldn’t they be a little more clearer with all their procedures and rules? But anyway, Slumdog is in and the Dark Knight is not. So let’s discuss about slumdog. Never has a movie been made before, which had the slums of Mumbai portrayed in such details and beauty. Mumbai is the capital to bollywood, where countless movies are made every year and never have you been able to see such close and heartwarming image of the slums as you see it in the slumdog. The first time I saw the movie all the comparisons were up between the slumdog and the richy rich bollywood movies. At least I believe they are on the same genre of mass entertainers. Slumdog did well in such a comparison. But when you move further, when you see all this ‘sweepings’ that the movie is doing at every international film awards, things gets a bit difficult. I saw Slumdog two more times since then. Yes you really can’t completely disagree with those people who claim slumdog to be another example of poverty porn and yes the realism of the story seems to be heavily influenced by how the westerns would like to see it and yes to most of such appraisals. But above everything, does the plot involving the story of a slum guy winning this huge prize money on a TV show and the senseless romantic plot that supposedly leads to all these, hold such credibility to win all these awards all around the world? Purely it’s a NO from me. The story is neither convincing nor moving beyond let us say, a general level. But I do repeat that it’s well made. Be it the perfectly immersed cinematography or the gripping editing, everything had the kind of feel goodness about it. But most importantly, the music department of the film, which played a major role in me liking the film the first time and something which helped me get through the whole deal the second and third time. And this brings us to the mastero A .R Rehman. The three nominations in the name of A. R will be the most important part of the Oscars this time for any Indian. Music of slumdog was nothing short of being sensational and it will finally bring some due international acclaim to the great Indian music director. But again, there is no great tension over that, as I think Rehman would surely win the award(s).

Then there was The Curious case of Benjamin Button, which became a disappointment for me in many ways. The movie was not bad, but it was disappointing anyway. When one of your favorite director and actor teams up to make a movie on a curious enough subject, you are certain to form some expectation levels of your own. In my case this exactly became the trouble. Well it’s difficult to see some one of the caliber of David Fincher ending up with such a conventionally styled movie. You expect these men to break the pattern and they do just the opposite. Benjamin button has got almost every important ingredient in it- a great cast, curious plot premises, amazing visual effects, top notch technical quality etc etc. But unfortunately all these things wouldn’t add up to an interesting cinema. I don’t know exactly why, but the movie is just not very engaging in most of its moments. The performances, especially that of Pitt’s, was just awesome. The period detailing by Fincher was awesome too, but as I already said, it is still very difficult to find such charm in the end product. For a movie which came with the promise of being ‘curious’, Benjamin button’s story ended up being too ordinary. But no much surprise on the huge list of nominations that this movie have managed in the academy. And it would possibly win many awards too, most of them in the technical side. It’s exactly the kind of movie that these academy people love to encourage.

Moving on, Frost/Nixon was quiet a good movie from Ron Howard. The movie was very successful in inflecting the necessary mood. The line between the documentary and drama is properly maintained by the script. The interviews which form the essential point of the plot is so very well presented that it gets both exciting and intriguing. The performance of Frank Langella as Richard Nixon was exceptional. The acting gets so convincing, especially towards the end of the movie that it really becomes the highlight of the whole film. However, I ‘am not quite sure about many awards for this movie. Not really sure.

Now, the academy’s love for gay movies are very well known and this time too they have made no difference with Milk. Milk pulls off because of its extreme faithfulness to the portrayal of the life of the San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official. All the spirit that the movie evokes is truly and completely what the true life story of Harvey milk holds in it. Backed by the amazing performance by almost all of them in the cast, especially the one by Sean Penn, this movie has surely got good chances at the Oscars. But, except for the extremely brilliant performance of Sean Penn, I don’t really see any reason why I should remember this movie for a long time. But anyway, I would love to see Sean win the best actor award but they simply has got too much competition in that category.

Reader is possibly the most ditched movie among this year’s Oscar nominations, both by the regular movie lovers and by the top critics. I don’t understand why that is so, but I surely loved the movie. Now the very low expectation levels in me may have helped, but that’s not important. The peculiar character of Hanna Schmitz played superbly by Kate Winslet remains to be the most important, interesting aspect about this cinema. The filmmaker’s approach to the portrayal of Hanna Schmitz is also very interestingly peculiar. Maybe this same ‘unusualness’ has resulted in many misunderstandings about the message of the movie and ultimately to all those negative opinions. Schmitz’s character has got this undeniable evil shade to herself throughout the movie. But we are restrained from making any sorts of judgments. The filmmaker quiet successfully pushes the entire question of right and wrong with tremendous amount of perplexity, on to the viewers. The decisions that most character’s makes in the film are so realistically strange and we are constantly made aware of how fragile we are all with our own secrets and choices. The emotional presentation of the tale is also quiet beautifully handled so that the movie is completely engaging when it should be. The intense performance of Kate Winslet remains as the main strength to the whole movie. Kate would win the award, I think. But besides that I don’t see too many chances for this film.Nevertheless, I was deeply moved by this one.

Mickey Rourkey’s performance as the struggling wrestler in the movie The Wrestler is truly a sensational comeback performance, as they call it. And the movie itself is no less beautiful. Aronofsky’s craft is well evident in this simple but intense tale of rare characters. The documentary feel in the story of a wrestler guy is quiet strange but that’s exactly why this movie is so involving. Under any other style, the whole plot premises would have appeared silly to most of us. Aronofsky’s is too brilliant a filmmaker to go completely wrong! It’s mostly like how you shoot it on your handicam and it feels so close to us that way. Especially the final moments of the movie involves such catharsis for the viewers. It is a shame that the academy hasn’t given this movie a nomination into the best movie category. I really feel that this film was one among the best last year.

Wall-E would most probably win the best animated movie Oscar and I also see good chance at the best original screenplay category too. But they wouldn’t give that to Wall-E anyway. I’am not sure about the screenplay department this time, but Slumdog shouldn’t really win the adapated screenplay category. But again, I think they will give it to Slumdog only. Whatever. Heath Ledger should surely win the best actor in a supporting role category. If he doesn’t, that will lead to huge public depression, that wouldn’t really do much good to the business! But yeah, Heath ledger was really phenomenal and there is no reason why he shouldn’t be honored by the award.

I ‘am not going further into making more predictions. A post of this size was not really in my intentions. But anyway, I ‘am stopping now. Huh wait, I have got another idea too. Here is how I voted at the joblo’s Oscar prediction contest. In case you are interested. In some categories like the foreign film and documentary film etc the vote has been made with the help of throwing a dice!! Wish me good luck in winning the i-pod and have good fun for yourself too!

I have never been this close a follower of the Hindi films as I ‘am right now, that I have started feeling a bit guilty about it alltogether. Lately, I had a few real bad experiences at the theater in the form of some bollywood blockbusters which led me to this above mentioned guilty feeling. I wouldn’t have cared to go to the theater for another hindi movie now, if not for all those great reviews everywhere, the good mouth publicity, the ’Akthar’ factor and everything that differentiates this cinema. So, last day I watched ‘Luck By Chance’, and yeah, I was not disappointed. Not a bit!

The safest and perhaps the most appropriate option before any filmmaker on his/her debut is to make a movie on a subject which is very much familiar to him or her, a subject on which he or she has got an immense grasp and a direct involvement. Zoya Akthar has hit bull’s eye just doing that. The movie, ‘Luck By Chance’ is so much of a first person account on the hindi film industry, by someone who was born and bought up in the midst of all those glamour and glimmer, that the entire movie looks almost cent percentage authentic. And perhaps the most important point is that it is not as authentic as it appears. The director apparently knows too much on the subject she is sharing with us. The perfectly executed comical inside commentaries in the movie becomes such an important aspect of the film’s narrative, that it really holds the entire movie together.

But despite everything else, I wouldn’t have loved this movie this much if not for the nearly flawless performance put on by the entire cast of the film. Rarely do you get an opportunity to see such solid acting here in the bollywood. The comicalness, the fun is mostly in the manner how the actors perform it and not it any dialogues or goofy filmy situations. Konakana Sensharma is sensational as Sona, an aspiring actor, who is struggling to find a place in the industry. It is with such great essence that Konakana actually brings out every tiny little gestures of the central character sona alive on the screen. Rishi Kapoor is hilarious as the big shot movie producer, Romy Rolly. Even Juhi Chawala, in a comparatively smaller role as the beloved wife of Romy Rolly, shines where ever she appears. Farhan Akthar’s performance as Vikram Jaisingh is nothing exceptional. But he too manages to avoid any serious flaws. He delivers such a plain performance, that’s neither too great nor too bad. The script is straightforward and a very well thought out one. Cinematography was fine generally, though at times the visuals seemed largely influenced by the commonly followed prototypes. The songs were incorporated beautifully in the movie that they had a separate beauty in the film. The Bgm used is also very light but is quiet effective.

At the end, Luck By Chance is not an unconventional experimentation of cinema or a pattern breaking attempt on storytelling. It’s just another hindi film, with all those commercial aspects carefully included, like all those fast dance numbers and the celebrity cameos. It follows the very conventions of a normal bollywood movie. But still it’s a good movie. And that’s the point!

“We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”
–Tyler Durden

To be satisfied with everything is such an impossibility. And so is being unsatisfied about all things. When the excuses you find becomes of no further use, then you want a change. You are so much unsatisfied about yourself and you have to choose. You have to find out the best façade among all. But the one you choose would never work with you. And that is why you are always so much unsatisfied. Then you got to make another choice. It’s like a cycle. And soon you will forget what you really want and what you really are. Being confused about how to pretend is such an awkward state of life. I’ am tired about it.

Now, do forget the bakwaas. A while since I came on the blog now. This should be an update post or something. Life continues to be that little bitch. But it’s quiet okay with me now. The college is getting so boring and I find no interest in whatsoever they teach there. The fucking Lab guy there wants my hairs shortened. I have been working on this shit for a long time now and all of a sudden he wants it all cut down. No, it’s not about losing the hair, but about ‘Why the fuck should a bald headed lab assistant guy tell me what I should do about my hair?’ Is this their way of making the perfect bunch of unemployed engineers for the days to come? Fine anyway. Also, Internet connectivity had become such a scarce thing in my life. With more working days and the poor fucking wifi network provided by the college, the future seems so dull. By the way, why on earth am I droning about the college in the blog? Nothing makes any sense no more.

Last night a few of us friends had a weird interesting conversation on ‘How important it is to have an ability to sing’. Singers are turning out to be the sexiest people on the world. People unconditionally love this singer guys. Girls do it with added ‘unconditionality’. Now that’s something which surely doesn’t comfort you too much. Especially when you know that you can’t sing very well. While in the conversation we all admitted how envious we are all about these singing people. I mean we do love singers and all that but ain’t this a bit of a biased kind of world that we are living in? You could see this as the weak man’s side of the story, but that makes no difference to me whatsoever. Okay, now nothing goes unresolved when we friends have a serious talk. Finally we all decided to learn at least one musical instruments in our days. To splash water over that burning feeling of unworthiness and to convince ourselves that we are trying. Sick it sounds, but sicker it would be without something like this! No, but seriously, I have been craving to learn some kind of a musical instrument for a long time now. Haven’t decided which one or where, suggestions are open and are welcome on this. Lately, I have been so much depressed about how lazy things are getting to be and how badly I ‘am being all the more invisible to the world which I would love to get noticed by. It’s all complicated and it happens with everyone I think.

Well so much for the whining now. The perfectly senseless and weird post already served its purpose, as I ‘am feeling a bit better now! And I ‘am feeling hungry too.

Ok. This is a fun ‘Meme’ which I stole from ruhi. The idea is to list out all your favorite movies in the alphabetic order. Quiet simple, but fun. Fun because there is no complication of rating one movie over another and such stuff. So here we go…

A is for Annie Hall – Woody Allen
The woody Allen favorite. Sincerely funny and smart! I think this movie is the best prototype to the entire work of Allen. Love this guy!

B is for Bicycle theives –Vittorio De SicaPure Classic and Beyond any words! ‘The more you watch it the more you love it’ kinda stuff!B is also forThe Big Lebowski –Coen Bros.
True inspirational stuff! I ‘am aware of the irony here but the dude is simply too cool!

D for Dr. Strangelove– Stanley Kubrick
Arguably one of the Kubrick’s best work (Space Odyssey is not being avioded. It is considered as something much much above any catogarization!). Quoting one review in imdb- “the only movie that will make you laugh at the end of the world!!”
D is also for Desharadham – Sibi Malayil (Malayalam).
Beautiful movie and one of the finest performances by one of the finest actors in the country- Mohanlal.

F is for Fight club– David Fincher
Get ready to resurrect yourself with the fight club! This movie was almost an addiction for me at a stage. Tyler Durden is truly one of the best movie characters ever.
(or Fargo or Following)

M is for Memento – Christopher Nolan.
One of the most intelligently constructed movie ever. An unbelievable work by Nolan. Also one of the most inspiring work of art for me. I mean how could people create movies like this?
(orMoonam pakam (Malayalam)- Padmarajan)

N is for No Country for Old Men– Coen Bros.
Simple, powerful and breathtaking. Coens at the top of their craft.

O is for Oldboy– Chan-wook Park
From the beginning till the end a breathtaking thriller. And these Korean actors, they are simply awesome.
(orO brother where art thou– Coen Bros.)

P is for Pulp Fiction– Quentin Tarantino
A movie which essentially changed my outlook on movies. QT at his best. Travolta, Bruce Willis, Samuel Jackson all at their best. One hell of an experience.

T is for Twelve Monkeys – Terry Gilliams
One of the best time travel movie I have seen. Beautifully and intelligently constructed. A thrilling experience.
(orTaxi Driver)

U is for Untouchables– Brian De Palma
A perfect classic style crime saga.

V is for Vertigo– Alfred Hitchcock
A murder mystery that is so much more than what it seems to be. The tremendous depth in the characters of the movie is just awe-inspiring. Greating acting too.
(orVanaprastham(malayalm)- Shaji N Karun)

W is for Wall-E– Andrew Stanton
Pixar movies seems to be getting better with each new one. Really lovable characters and enjoyable plot are mostly their highlights. Wall-E is no different.

Y is for Yojimbo – Akira Kurasowa
A great example to the great story telling talents of Kurasowa. Beyond any distinction of generations, languages and cultures. Like almost all of his movies. Maybe the ‘coolest’ movie from Kurasowa. Loved it. Totally.

Z is for Zodaic– David Fincher
I think it is the fascination of an ongoing case being made into film that differentiate Zodiac from other movies. The true essence of the original happenings can be felt in the cinema and hats off to Fincher for that. Needless to say I love this man and I love his movies very much.

Uhh….The Longest post ever! I should have been really mad to write this all up! Shit!

P.S: One important point to be noted here is that the priority was given in finding and assigning at least one movie for each letter. And hence this may not be quiet the list of my favorite movies. There is a slight difference between the two.

When we reached Tiruvandapuram at morning 4 0’ clock nothing had any amount of certainty. Standing in the packed train for more than four hours to reach here, had already made us tired to death. The plan is to meet the acclaimed writer-director Renjith for an interview for the college magazine and to have some good fun at the ongoing international film festival of Kerala. Except for that plan, everything was in perfect chaos at that point of time. The friend who had an uncle, who supposedly was arranging everything for us, was not even available on the phone. Our expectations were quiet low and we were completely prepared to get kicked in the ass.

It all began when we heard that our college magazine has got three pages reserved for an interview every year. Since the editor was a guy from our own hostel, we made sure that we will do the interview this year.
Since then we had kind of elaborate plans and all such stuff. It must have been several months now. We tried to contact Renjith on phone but failed many times. So, everything was in ‘out-of-the-hands’ state when last day suddenly I got a call from my friend. He said Renjith had agreed for the interview on 15th morning 8 o clock (that was a day after tomorrow then!) at Tvm. It was 200+km and just one day ahead. Wow!

The plan was to make the questions for the interview while in the train during the 4 hour journey. But the train was fucking too crowded. Not even enough space to stand straight. Fantastic. Also some friends called telling that they probably couldn’t make it.

So now we stand at the capital city perfectly unaware of anything that’s coming our way.
Square one state!

After some 2-3 hours came the Friend’s phone call. Things gained pace with that. The vagueness started to disappear and to our own surprise, everything started to get into an order. At 10 o’ clock morning, we finally talked to the man on phone and he asked us to come. The venue was a theatre. Two of his movies were going to be screened today and he was awfully busy. We found him in the middle of a group of some top shot directors of Malayalam. Now, assuming our excitement level is your job!

Interview lasted for something like one hour.

The man was just electrifying. He started to give elaborate answers to each of our questions with such ease and frankness. He suddenly took the control of the whole deal going on. We felt a particular warmth and love in the way he reacted. We felt valued!

It was a cricketer’s delight at his maiden century or a child’s excitement on being at the top of an elephant or the ecstasy of the lost at being heard. It was beautiful. May be the interview wasn’t that good. But when we finally walked out of the place for some food, we felt really good.

Then there was a bunch of worthy movies to watch at the IFFK. But bad luck for us there. A pass was required to watch the movies and what did we knew. We went to watch Priyadarshan’s Kanchivaram, and were surprised by the huge crowd there. We understood that it was impossible without a pass and peacefully roamed around the city talking a lot of photographs and gradually started back home by noon.

It was still a worthy deal for us anyway.

I will post the interview (which was in malayalam) after our college magazine comes out. The photos are strictly copyrighted.